Radio Permit Sought Bucks Targeted For New Station

The former owner of radio station WBYO in Boyertown has asked the Federal Communications Commission for authorization to take over a permit to construct a station in the Quakertown area.

David G. Hendricks seeks to obtain the FCC's construction permit that is held by Joseph and Nancy Reilly, the Dublin, Ohio, couple who for years tried to establish radio station WBCQ in Richland Township.

Hendricks was attending a convention of broadcasters this week and was unavailable for comment. He founded WBYO in 1960 and sold it last year for $3.3 million. The station featured religious broadcasting during Hendricks' tenure as owner. The station's new owner, Legend Communications Inc. of Columbia, Md., changed the format to soft rock and moved the station's headquarters to Reading.

Hendricks' wife, Nedra, said her husband would program religious music and features on WBCQ if he is able to get the station off the ground. The first hurdle, she said, is finding property for the station's studio and towers. Hendricks has recently started looking for an appropriate piece of ground, she said.

David Tillotson, a Washington attorney who is representing the broadcaster before the FCC, said Hendricks is currently seeking the agency's authorization to obtain the permit to build the station from the Reillys. After the station is built, he said, Hendricks will then apply for a license to operate WBCQ.

WBCQ would be located at 1180 on the AM band.

The Reillys were never able to launch the station because of the refusal of Richland Township officials to grant zoning changes for the property. The Reillys had obtained an option to buy a 15-acre property between Route 212 and Meadow Road in Richland Township, which would have housed the station as well as its 150-foot transmission towers.

The Richland Township Zoning Hearing Board refused to grant a variance for the Reillys to use the property as a radio station. Court challenges to the township board's ruling that were filed by the Reillys subsequently failed.

Anne T. Paxson, an attorney for the Reillys, said the couple simply decided that they were not going to obtain court approval to establish the station, so they have dropped their plans to operate WBCQ. The Reillys first asked the zoning variance from Richland Township in 1987.

Joseph Reilly, a former Bucks County resident, had said that the couple would move back to Bucks to operate the station, which would feature a general format of music, news and other local features.

"I feel bad for them," said Paxson. "They thought they would eventually prevail, and they didn't."